Securing Employee-Selected Devices in the Enterprise

While the "consumerization" of information technology has been happening, to one degree or another, since computers became "personal," the recent explosion of devices, services, identities, social media, and rich media applications now finds us grappling with the security risks of providing access to enterprise information and resources from an increasingly diverse range of technologies.

IT departments that have traditionally adopted a just-say-no policy to this invasion are now confronted with some rather compelling arguments from their user base to perhaps say yes. Why embrace consumerization? Three reasons:

First of all, we've become completely enamored with our devices, apps, and services. They're not going away. Efforts to quash this infatuation rather than manage it could actually weaken your security posture.

Second, this trend has real potential for improving collaboration, agility and productivity. This technology is, in fact, making it easier for your users to connect with each other, access and share information from anywhere, at any time, on the devices of their choice.

And the last reason could shine light on the ultimate business case: Enabling social capabilities could point to innovations that open up new channels and even new markets for the business.

This special edition of TechNet Flash highlights the technologies, tools and best practices to help you strike the right balance between user expectations and enterprise security requirements.